Yes. While men often experience the “classic” symptoms—such as crushing chest pain or heaviness on the left side of the chest—women may have more subtle or atypical symptoms. Women’s symptoms can include neck, back, or breast pain; stomach pain; heartburn; nausea; shortness of breath, especially with activity; or unusual fatigue. These can be mistaken for stress, indigestion, or a minor illness, which may delay diagnosis. Any new, unexplained chest discomfort, shortness of breath, or combination of the symptoms above should be taken seriously, and women should seek medical care promptly.
While you can’t change your age or family history, many cases of heart disease are linked to controllable risk factors. Not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, eating a heart-healthy diet, staying active, managing blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar, and addressing stress all play a role. Regular check-ups and screenings with your health care team are essential to catching issues early and keeping your heart as healthy as possible.
A heart-healthy diet focuses on more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein, while limiting salt, added sugar, and saturated fat. Choosing baked or broiled foods instead of fried, using herbs and spices instead of salt, and swapping full-fat dairy and desserts for lower-fat options can all help support better heart health. Over time, these changes can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol and decrease the risk of future heart problems.
Regular physical activity helps lower blood pressure, improve cholesterol, manage weight, and control blood sugar—all key factors in reducing heart disease risk. Even moderate activity such as walking most days of the week can be beneficial. Your care team can help you choose an activity plan and intensity level that’s safe for you, especially if you have existing heart disease or other health conditions.
Some risk factors you can’t change include age, sex, family history, and race. However, many major risk factors are controllable: smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar/diabetes, obesity, physical inactivity, and unmanaged stress. Other factors like heavy alcohol use and certain hormone therapies can also increase risk. Knowing your personal risk profile and working with your care team to address what you can control is one of the most important steps in protecting your heart.
Depending on your symptoms and risk factors, your doctor may recommend tests such as calcium scoring to measure plaque buildup in the heart arteries or a MUGA scan to assess how well your heart pumps blood. These and other noninvasive tests help your care team detect problems early, monitor heart function over time, and choose the safest and most effective treatment options.
McLaren provides comprehensive heart and vascular care across Michigan, including advanced diagnostic testing, medical management, minimally invasive procedures, and open-heart surgery. Our programs treat conditions such as coronary artery disease, heart failure, heart rhythm problems, valve disease, and peripheral vascular disease. Care is delivered by a coordinated team of cardiologists, electrophysiologists, surgeons, and specialized heart-care staff.
McLaren offers a wide range of treatments, from medications and lifestyle support to advanced procedures. Options may include catheter-based procedures such as ablation for arrhythmias, coronary angiography and angioplasty, stenting, TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement), and other structural heart interventions. For some patients, open-heart or off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) and other complex cardiac surgeries are available.
Early Heart Attack Care (EHAC) is an education campaign that helps people recognize the early signs of a heart attack—often days or weeks before a major event. The goal is to encourage people to seek care as soon as subtle symptoms appear, instead of waiting for severe chest pain. Because most heart damage happens within the first two hours of a heart attack, recognizing and acting on these early symptoms can significantly reduce permanent damage to the heart.
Hands-only CPR is a simple form of CPR for teens and adults that uses chest compressions only, without rescue breaths. It has been shown to work as well as traditional CPR in the first few minutes after someone collapses from a sudden cardiac event at home, work, or in public. There are just two steps:
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Call 911 if you see a teen or adult collapse.
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Push hard and fast in the center of the chest, at a rate of 100–120 beats per minute (to the beat of a familiar, upbeat song).
Even if you’re not formally trained, taking action with hands-only CPR can help save a life.
Nisus Research, part of McLaren Northern Michigan, supports Phase II, III, and IV clinical trials in partnership with physicians, sponsors, and patients. Through these studies, patients may gain access to new therapies, devices, and diagnostics before they are widely available. Clinical research can offer additional monitoring from physicians and research nurses and helps advance care for conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and rheumatoid arthritis—ultimately improving treatment options for future patients.
Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) is a minimally invasive procedure used to treat a narrowed aortic valve (aortic stenosis). Instead of opening the chest, specialists place a new valve through a small incision—often in the groin—using a catheter. TAVR may be an option for patients who are considered higher-risk or low-risk for traditional valve-replacement surgery, depending on their overall health. Your cardiologist and heart team can determine whether TAVR is appropriate for you.
The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet is designed to help lower blood pressure and support overall cardiovascular health. It emphasizes whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat or skim dairy, lean proteins such as skinless poultry and fish, nuts and legumes, and healthy fats like olive or peanut oil. The plan limits sodium (salt), sweets, sugary drinks, and high-fat meats. Many patients follow a mostly plant-forward DASH-style approach as part of their treatment plan for high blood pressure or heart disease.
Some heart attack risk factors cannot be changed, including age, family history of heart disease, prior heart disease, and gender. However, many important risk factors can be managed. These include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar/diabetes, excess weight or high BMI, chronic inflammation, a diet high in salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats, lack of exercise, smoking, high stress levels, and low HDL (“good”) cholesterol. Working with your health care provider to manage these controllable risks can significantly lower your chance of a heart attack.
Stroke symptoms usually come on suddenly and may include: numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg (especially on one side of the body); sudden confusion or trouble speaking or understanding; inability to smile normally; sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes; dizziness or trouble walking, with balance or coordination problems; difficulty following simple commands; or a sudden, severe headache with no known cause. If you notice any of these signs, call 911 right away—“time is brain,” and prompt treatment can reduce long-term disability.
Both heart attacks and strokes are medical emergencies, but they affect different organs. A heart attack happens when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is blocked, usually by a clot in a coronary artery. A stroke (often called a “brain attack”) happens when a blood vessel in the brain is blocked or bursts, cutting off oxygen and nutrients to part of the brain. Heart attack symptoms often involve chest discomfort, shortness of breath, and arm, jaw, or back pain, while stroke symptoms typically include sudden weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, vision changes, difficulty walking, or a severe headache.
You should talk with your doctor about seeing a cardiologist if you have chest pain, shortness of breath, palpitations, fainting episodes, leg swelling, or a known history of heart disease. You may also be referred to a heart specialist if you have multiple risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or a strong family history of heart disease. Early evaluation allows problems to be identified and treated before they become more serious.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death in women, and more than one in three women over age 60 dies from heart disease—more than from all cancers combined. Women sometimes receive less aggressive evaluation and treatment, and their symptoms may be milder or different from men’s, leading to delays in diagnosis. The good news is that women often respond very well to lifestyle changes, medications, cardiac procedures, and cardiac rehabilitation. Quitting smoking, managing cholesterol, controlling diabetes, and maintaining a healthy weight are especially important for women’s heart health.